Media Leaders Share Steps to Diversity: A Conversation With Coppernoll, Brand, and Kaplowitz

I had the privilege of capturing the voices and ideas of a dozen esteemed attendees amp8212 ranging from Brand to Julie Coppernoll corporate vice president global marketing strategy at Intel to Publicis Americas CEO Tim Jones to the legendary Kay Koplovitz of Springboard Enterprises As you39ll hear in the coming weeks amp8212 as we roll out more episodes of the Advancing Diversity podcast amp8212 they share specific recommendations and points of view about what impacts them the most both personally and professionallyThe following is an edited topline from the first episode captured during MediaVillage39s Advancing Diversity Hall of Honors event Episode 10 features Coppernoll Brand and Marla Kaplowitz president and CEO of the 4As I hope you39ll listen to this 17minute episode and please subscribe and share from wherever you get your podcasts Apple Podcasts Stitcher iHeartRadio or YouTubeComing Together as a CommunityAfter they described a quotday in their livesquot I asked each executive quotWhat would you say is the most important action that we can take together as a community to help advance diversity and inclusion and move it from advocacy and talking about it to activismquotWords amp8212 and numbers amp8212 matterCoppernoll points out that the word quotcommunityquot gets used in so many different ways that it39s important to define what it means for each individual organization for example she39s trying to define it for women at Intel quotHow do you build that intercompany community And how do you get people actually supporting each other in ways that they haven39t such as if all of the women at your company got together on a regular basis really got to know each other so they could support each other and stated what their goals were and what they want to be accountable for and responsible for amp8212 like we want to be accountable for bringing more women into the organization amp8212 and then let them figure out how they want to go do itquotFor Brand the word together really resonated quotI think the keyword in your question is together We39ve been talking about inclusion and diversity for a really really long time and all of us as companies and organizations are trying to solve for this extremely wicked problem But we39re trying to do it ourselves And there39s not enough industrywide focus and effort to get all the best practices and all the amazing thinking and all the research and the work that39s been done and bring it together and really start to set standards together to set metrics together to figure out ways to hold each other accountable That39s where change happensquotKaplowitz pointed out those who are coming together as well as the value in the measurement being done by the 4As and organizations such as She Runs It with the Inclusive100 learn more in Episode 9 of the Advancing Diversity Podcast quotThere are so many agencies and companies that each have their own programquot Kaplowitz says quotThis is not something that people need to be doing on their own We don39t need to keep reinventing new programs When you find something that works people should be open to sharing thatquotDiversity Best Practices actually measures what is happening within an individual company and our goal for the Inclusive100 is to make sure that we can get at least a hundred companies in the marketing and advertising space to participate It39s freeamp8230 It39s about making sure that we can benchmark and understand because we need to measure to show that we can have that kind of impact and we need to be open about the severity of the issueOn the topic of helping prepare the younger set of new media and marketing candidates to attract and retain highcaliber employees Coppernoll says Intel aims to mentor them with empathy suggesting those mentors say quot39Hey look we39re going to have you come in and do a presentation on a competitive product39 and push them through that exercise and assignments because when you39re new in your career you don39t have any idea And you39re up against people that have been there for 10 15 20 30 years They know what to ask because they39ve seen it and they have that benefit So giving them the questions to ask letting them go get the answers then they learnquotThat answer amp8212 education amp8212 speaks to one of the five steps Jack Myers outlines in his recommendations for how together we need to advance diversity Kaplowitz says 4As is doubling down on that especially in response to more and more agencies39 requests to include business etiquette training Those skills are now incorporated in its 12week advertising and marketing virtual training program She notes quotA lot of these students have never been in a business environment before And for those that already have experience that are also part of the program they get the same kind of knowledgequotBrand described a specific way to open eyes and minds via Twitter39s cultural intersectionality program quotWe are teaching people day one in our orientation program about intersectionality They have the ability to put two or three things on their employee badges that they39re passionate about or that represent them And those become intersectional conversations in the car in the cafeteria looking at a badge and saying 39Oh I see you enjoy pop music39 or 39I see you enjoy football39 or whatever those things are so we could teach people to appreciate the things that we have in commonquotThat answer dovetails with how Brand answered my last question to each of them what inspires each media executive to take action in DampampI She said quotIn terms of inclusion and diversity amp8212 in particular for me amp8212 I get inspired by the conversations about how we are the same and similar We spend so much time talking about the differences and encouraging people to appreciate the differences and value people that are different amp8212 and that39s critically important and a part of it But I have found that people open up tremendously when you can amp8230 share something you have in common You have to get people to listen first and to have a conversationquotListen to our full conversation and drive quotintersectionalityquot by sharing this episode across our industryDon39t stop now Stay in the know on diversity and inclusion with more from Advancing Diversity PodcastsClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet

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Media Leaders Share Steps to Diversity: A Conversation With Coppernoll, Brand, and Kaplowitz

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Media Leaders Share Steps to Diversity: A Conversation With Coppernoll, Brand, and Kaplowitz

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